Letter From Beirut.

It has been raining all week, persistent drizzle unlike the brief downpours that are more typical of Beirut. The city is slumbering. El-Zein am staying with his parents. His father goes out less often. His mother is snuggled under the blankets. She hopes the war won’t happen. The kettle is boiling like a purring cat. The house is quiet. Rain is the soporific of cities.Australia Council, La Trobe University, National Library of Australia, Holding Redlich, Arts Victori

Does History matter for Engineering?

Presentation for the launch of the Journal and abstract of proceedings of the Sydney University Engineering Society . This journal was digitised as part of a partnership project involving the University of Sydney Library and the Australian Society for History of Engineering and Technology.Australian Society for History of Engineering and Technology and the University of Sydney Librar

Vulnerability to Sea Level Rise Of 8 Beaches In Shoalhaven: A New Multi-Dimensional Assessment Methodology

Coastal councils around the world are likely to be affected by future climatic impacts such as sea level rise and extreme flooding. Shoalhaven City Council is responsible for the sustainable management of 165 kilometres of open coast, the longest of any local government area in New South Wales. In order to prepare a comprehensive coastal zone management plan, Council investigated present and expected future coastal risks on its beaches. Detailed studies identified eight beaches where coastal hazards would significantly impact private properties and public assets. In order to help decision-makers in prioritising management actions for the eight areas, an analytical tool is needed that would not only quantify the physical risks to infrastructure but would also be able to integrate social and environmental considerations towards a holistic assessment of the vulnerability of each beach area. Following the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) conceptualisation, the vulnerability of a community to a climate hazard can be seen as determined by the degree of physical exposure to the hazard, as well as the community’s sensitivity to its impacts and its ability to cope with, or adapt to, these impacts. Hence, vulnerability assessment presents a number of theoretical and methodological challenges, the most important of which are epitomized by the following questions: 1. how to determine, say whether a community with high exposure and high adaptive capacity is more vulnerable or less vulnerable than a community with lower exposure but lower adaptive capacity? (problem of compensation). 2. how to incorporate the imprecision and value-judgments inevitably present in multistakeholder vulnerability assessments while maintaining a consistent and robust scientific process? (problem of fuzziness). A new methodology has been developed at the University of Sydney that addresses these questions and offers a clear and consistent approach for conducting vulnerability assessments. The paper describes the application of this methodology to the ranking of vulnerabilities to sea level rise of eight beaches in Shoalhaven

Mechanical and flow behaviours and their interactions in coalbed geosequestration of CO2

Studying gas transport mechanisms in coal seams is crucial in determining the suitability of coal formations for geosequestration and/or CO-enhanced coal bed methane recovery (ECBM), estimating CO storage capacity and recoverable volume of methane, and predicting the long-term integrity of CO storage and possible leakages. Due to the dual porosity nature of coal, CO transport is a combination of viscous flow and Fickian diffusion. Moreover, CO is adsorbed by the coal which leads to coal swelling which can change the porous structure of coal and consequently affects the gas flow properties of coal, i.e. its permeability. In addition, during CO permeation, the coal seam undergoes a change in effective stress due to the pore pressure alteration and this can also change the permeability of the coal seam. In addition, depending on the in situ conditions of the coal seam and the plan of the injection scheme, carbon dioxide can be in a supercritical condition which increases the complexity of the problem. We provide an overview of the recent studies on porous structure of coal, CO adsorption onto coal, mechanisms of CO transport in coalbeds and their measurement, and hydro-mechanical response of coal to CO injection and identify opportunities for future research

Self-healing polymers: Synthesis methods and applications

Clays have numerous applications in a variety of applications including engineering, medical and civil areas. The wide applicability of clays is attributed to their useful physico-mechanical as well as biomedical applications, since they are readily available, nontoxic to human body and environment, low cost and having kneading, swelling, adsorption of properties for metal ions. Industrial sectors in different fields are greatly dependent on the usage of different clays, but the cracks or defects or damaged areas present in clays restrict their practical applications. In order to overcome these problems, various polymeric materials have been developed through different strategies to heal the cracks or repair the damaged areas of clays, and improve their properties and potential usage in various applications. This review will address several aspects such as preparation, structure–property relationships, properties of different types of clays and self-healing polymers, healing process of cracks in clays using polymers, crack healing mechanism, test methods of healing efficiency, properties (e.g. structure, hydraulic conductivity, swelling nature, mechanical and rheology) of clays before and after healing of cracks, and their applications

The promise and challenges of utility-scale compressed air energy storage in aquifers

Widely distributed aquifers have been proposed as effective storage reservoirs for compressed air energy storage (CAES). This aims to overcome the limitations of geological conditions for conventional utility-scale CAES, which has to date used caverns as the storage reservoirs. As a promising technology, compressed air energy storage in aquifers (CAESA) has received increasing attention as a potential method to deal with the intermittent nature of solar or wind energy sources. This article presents a selective review of theoretical and numerical modeling studies as well as field tests, along with efficiency and economic analyses, to assess the feasibility of the emerging technology. Although some field tests suggest that a large bubble could be created in aquifers to sustain the working cycles at target rates, challenges remain before the technology can be recommended for wide deployment. The geological critical safety factors affecting the gas bubble development and sustainability of operation cycles include the geological structure, aquifer depth, and hydrodynamic and mechanical properties, such as porosity, permeability, compressibility, and mineral composition. Moreover, the injection/withdrawal well configurations and oxidation reactions caused by the oxygen in compressed air should also be considered. The failed attempt of renewable energy combined with CAESA in Iowa is described and the lessons learned are summarized. Combining CAESA with thermal storage, using CO2 as cushion gas, horizontal wells or hydraulic fracturing, and man-made boundaries are proposed to improve CAESA efficiency but need further study for future applications

Support for UNRWA's survival

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) provides life-saving humanitarian aid for 5·4 million Palestine refugees now entering their eighth decade of statelessness and conflict. About a third of Palestine refugees still live in 58 recognised camps. UNRWA operates 702 schools and 144 health centres, some of which are affected by the ongoing humanitarian disasters in Syria and the Gaza Strip. It has dramatically reduced the prevalence of infectious diseases, mortality, and illiteracy. Its social services include rebuilding infrastructure and homes that have been destroyed by conflict and providing cash assistance and micro-finance loans for Palestinians whose rights are curtailed and who are denied the right of return to their homeland

Risk and Social Vulnerability: How Engineering Can Engage more Effectively with Climate Change

Engineering practice, education and research are bound to be important elements in society’s response to climate change. While a number of other disciplines such as economics, agriculture, urban planning and geoscience, are critical to the development of mitigation policies, the designs and processes engineers create in the transport, mining, energy, building and waste management sectors will be key in determining atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases over the coming decades. Similarly, the way landscapes, buildings, neighbourhoods and cities are built or rebuilt, will undoubtedly be a major part of adaptation to higher temperatures, rising sea levels and more extreme weather events. The paper discusses some of the barriers that prevent engineering education and practice from fully and productively engaging with the challenges raised by climate change. The paper recommends an expansion of the solution universe to which engineering students and graduates are exposed, a better understanding by engineering students of the politics of technology and possible biases of engineers, and more engagement on the part of engineers with the social and ecological embeddedness of technology